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UNIVERSITY ROUNDUP
National seminar at SVU
Auspicious beginning: Jayadhir Tirumala Rao, Director, A.P.Manuscripts Library and Research Centre, inaugurating the national seminar.
SV University’s Telugu Department conducted a UGC two-day national seminar on the theme ‘Folk Literature and Arts – Their social benefits’ at its campus last week.In his keynote address, the general secretary of Folklore Society of South Indian Languages, N. Bhaktavatsala Reddy, insisted that the folk art forms would remain alive till the time Indians attached significance to their traditions and culture.
He noted that the folk arts and literature only take new forms in tune with the changing times and that they could never be obliterated by any force.
Taking a serious note of the ‘western influence’ on the younger generations, Jayadhir Tirumala Rao, Director of Andhra Pradesh Manuscripts Library and Research Centre said that the western media had already dealt a stealthy blow on Indian culture. He also expressed pain at the western countries ‘plundering’ the undocumented drugs and medicinal herbs of the native tribals and selling the same back to Indian in the form of ‘tablets in blister packs’.
SVU Vice-Chancellor Choppala Ratnam recalled the days when neighbours used to be part of one’s extended family and felt that the growing nuclear family system and ‘apartment culture’ had vanquished the ‘bonhomous relationship’.
Seminar director Peta Srinivasulu Reddy rued that in the name of entertainment, television channels and films were polluting the young minds with an overdose of obscenity, violence and by the portrayal of aggression as a noble character. K.Muniratnam, HoD (Telugu) presided.
In the cultural session, folk dance forms such as Pillangatti Nrutyam, Pamba katha, Salla Yanadula Girijan dance, Santhavellore Koyya bommalata and street plays were performed.
Presiding over the session, the Registrar Y.Venkatrami Reddy explained the key role played by the street plays in propagating the Hindu mythology and culture.
RSVP
Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha is conducting a special series of lectures for the academic year 2007-08 by inviting senior professors from across the country.
The ‘Visiting Fellows’, who are not just men of Shastraic expertise, but also specialists drawn from modern fields of study, are delivering lectures spanning a wide range of subjects that the programme has already crossed four months.
Subject experts such as N. R. Srinivasan, Khageswara Misra, G.C.Nayak, Sripati Tripathy, K.C.Mohapatra, A.K.Nanda, Fakir Mohan Panda (all from Orissa), Bala Subrahmanyam, SVRR Acharyulu, Ch.Srirama Sarma, P.V.Arunachalam (all from Andhra Pradesh), Subbaraya Bhat, Suryanarayana Bhatt and Mani Dravida (Karnataka), N.Veezhinathan (Tamil Nadu) and Gangadhar Panda (Uttar Pradesh) are delivering lectures on topics like ‘Research in the context of Indian culture’, ‘Ethics in Advaita Vedanta’, ‘Tolerance in Indian philosophical tradition’ and ‘Implications of Advaita Vedanta for world peace’ etc.
K. E. Devanathan, Dean, Faculty of Darsanas is acting as the coordinator for the lecture series.
A.D. Rangarajan in Tirupati
Memorial lecture delivered
Gursaran Parshad Talwar, a well-known Immunologist, and a specialist in Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology, delivered the Dr. Yellapragada Subba Row Memorial Lecture titled ‘Development of Products of Relevance’ at University of Hyderabad.
Prof. Talwar presented his research work on a Non-pathogenic fast growing Mycobacterium coded as ‘M.W’ sharing antigen with Mycobacterium Leprae and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis which was discovered by him. It was later renamed after him as ‘Mycobacterium Indicus Pranii (MIP)’ for his relentless research on Tuberculosis and Leprosy Pathogens.
MIP can be applied in the therapy of Anogenital Warts; it is a potent adjuvant for the birth control vaccine, vaccine against rabies, reduces tumor formation in rats and many other functions.
The memorial lecture is held every year as a tribute to Dr. Yellapragada Subba Row, often described as ‘Miracle Man of Miracle Drugs’. Dr. Subba Row, born in 1895, at Bhimavaram, West Godavari District did his Ph.D in Biochemistry from the Harvard Medical School.
He made several discoveries, which included high energy compounds such as Phosphocreatine and ATP, as well as antibiotics such as Gramicidin and Aureomycin. He also produced Folic Acid, Hetrazan and Aminopterin. He died at a young age in his sleep in August, 1948.
R. Ravikanth Reddy in Hyderabad
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